Saturday, December 31, 2016

State of the Kaiju: A Year in Review

Hello monster fans! Happy New Year! As 2016 comes to a close, I'd like to take a look back on how things have fared in the world of Kaiju Big Battel: Fighto Fantasy.

What is this Thing?

For newcomers, Fighto Fantasy is an SNES-style RPG using characters from Kaiju Big Battel, a live monster wrestling show. It's powered by the OHRRPGCE engine, and will be available on PC, Mac, Linux, and Android. Future platforms are up in the air right now, but I'd like to see as many people able to play as possible! It will be sold on Steam (we'll be launching a Steam Greenlight page soon) and Google Play for $10. The base game will be around 10 hours long, with future updates and expansions provided for free.

Fighto Fantasy is a project I started planning in late 2014, though development didn't really kick off until a year later, as 2015 came to an end. Since then, I've met with the talent behind Kaiju, spoke on a panel at PAX East 2016 where I demonstrated an early build live, and dedicated a great deal of time to making a game that will appeal to both Kaiju fans and old-school RPG fans alike.

We were hoping to launch the title by the end of 2016, but life had other plans! In addition to having a heavy work load at the day job going into the holiday season, my daughter's about to be born, so Fighto Fantasy had taken a bit of a backseat for a while. With the game approximately 50-60% complete, we're estimating a release some time in the first half of 2017.

Who Are We?

The team behind Fighto Fantasy is Super Walrus Games. We're just a tiny handful of dudes making games and having a good time. Let's learn about each other!

Fighto Fantasy's pixel artist,
Soda Piggy also helps come up with game design ideas and provides coding
assistance. He is primarily a freelance graphic artist and composer and
has a fire for working on retro-style games, like this one, and has a
good knowledge of old gaming systems’ art. When he’s not working on
games, he is playing them, and always looking for new inspiration. He maintains the game's Twitter account.

The musicians behind Fighto Fantasy and other Super Walrus Games titles. Glock and mr8bit first found fame busking outside of
the graveyard in the small town of Union, Connecticut. Through a series
of increasingly-unlikely events, they embarked on a whirlwind tour of
America, culminating in a police chase through the winding hills of San Francisco. While serving time in federal prison, Glock spent his days
power lifting weights while mr8bit spent his days mostly crying and
eating paper towels. Upon their release, the pair used their new cache
of street cred to rise through the ranks of the Mullido Diablos cartel,
ultimately transforming the organization from a ruthless drug syndicate
into a profitable textile distributor. Satisfied with their
accomplishments and not wanting for money, they returned to their first
love: music. They have produced several wildly successful soundtracks
for several wildly successful games that have since become household
names for people who aren't squares. They continue to be true titans of
the industry, yet have somehow managed to remain humble despite all of
their awesome achievements that will never be duplicated by anyone ever
throughout the entire history of the universe.

James & Ralph are the developers of the OHRRPGCE (Official Hamster Republic Role Playing Game Construction Engine), along with Mike, Simon, Jay, Yuriy and yet more contributors.

James lurks in California with his lovely family. He enjoys making games just a tiny bit more than he enjoys playing them, and he enjoys fixing bugs just a tiny bit more than he enjoys creating new
ones.

Ralph spends much too much time chasing escapee sheep back into their paddocks and growing exotics on a small farm in New Zealand. When he's not farming or working on the OHRRPGCE or a dozen other projects simultaneously he's meant to be completing his graduate studies in pattern recognition.

What's Next?

Once the current area of Fighto Fantasy is completed, we'll be sending out play test copies to select associates. There will be a wider play test once the game's closer to completion.

Keep checking back here and on Facebook for weekly updates! You can follow the game's development bit by bit as we reveal new characters, songs, locations, and more. Once the game's up for voting on Steam Greenlight, we'd appreciate your support! Have a good New Year's, and watch out for monsters.